Heard of Jackson Hole? Here's Jackson Tree

It isn't uncommon to read stories about the Virgin Mary appearing in water stains under a freeway or on a grilled cheese sandwich. Or perhaps a cheese puff that someone thinks looks like Jesus. Now with the recent death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson has begun making appearances.

A family in Stockton, California says that Jacko has appeared on a stump where their birch tree had a branch removed. As Skeptic magazine publisher and author Michael Shermer has pointed out, we are pattern seeking animals. This is why we see shapes in clouds and constellations in our night sky. Despite that, I am sure there are people who worship MJ to the point that they will hang on to this as a sign of some sort. I just wonder...when they pruned the tree, did they remove Jackson's nose?

Yep...I'm bad.

Karl Malden - #8

The bad week to be a celebrity continues with the death of Oscar-winning actor, Karl Malden. Known for his role in A Streetcar Named Desire, and for a two-decade run as spokeman for American Express, Malden also starred in the TV Series, The Streets of San Francisco. He was 97.

Gale Storm Makes Seven

Seems that my counts of recent celebrity deaths was one off, since I had forgotten about the death of actor David Carradine in Thailand. So adding that one brings us to six, and now we have actress Gale Storm who died yesterday to raise the recent celeb deaths count to seven.

Gale was born Josephine Cottle, and achieved stardom in the cowboy movies, including some with Roy Rogers. Later moving to television, she co-starred in the program My Little Margie, and later The Gale Storm Show. Margie started as a CBS summer replacement for I Love Lucy, and quickly found a following. The show moved to NBC where it had a successful run.

Gale Storm was 87 years old.

And Fred Makes Five

The deaths of celebrities continue to mount. Comedian Fred Travalena succumbed to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at his home in Encino, California. Coincidentally, Travalena appeared in the premiere episode of a 1991 sitcom titled Good Sports, which starred the late Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal. Fawcett, of course, died last Thursday after a lengthy struggle with cancer.

Fred Travalena was 66 years old.

And Billy Makes Four

Holey Moley, it has been a bad few days for celebrities. First Ed McMahon dies, then Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson, and now TV Pitchman Billy Mays goes to bed feeling ill and doesn't wake up. Even though Billy's TV pitches are very annoying, I have been enjoying his new show Pitchmen on the Discovery Channel. The program showed a side of Billy you don't get on the ads. He seemed to be a genuinely nice guy and family man, who helped inventors get exposure for their products.

Mays was scheduled for a 3rd hip replacement on Monday, and had been on the road quite a bit. His last Twitter post was about the hard landing when a tire blew out on his plane yesterday. He had been to Los Angeles to appear on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien last Tuesday, followed by some work with his clients on the east coast.

Billy Mays was 50 years old.